Royals rout Daredevils

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Ahmedabad - Ajinkya Rahane has struck a half-century as the Rajasthan Royals smashed the Delhi Daredevils by 62 runs in their Indian Premier League match at the Sardar Patel Stadium in Ahmedabad on Thursday.

The supersport.com website reports that Rahane struck a controlled 64 off 50 deliveries, his third fifty of this year’s tournament, as Rajasthan posted 201 for six after being asked to bat.

Delhi could only muster 139 for nine despite 61 not out off 44 balls from Manoj Tiwary as they collapsed to their ninth loss in 11 matches.

The right-handed Rahane brought up his fifty off 45 balls, and went past 300 runs for this year’s IPL in the process, by clipping a delivery from medium-pacer Shukla down to fine leg for the seventh four of his innings before he was bowled by left-arm spinner Shahbaz Nadeem in the 17th over of the innings.

The match started 15 minutes late because of a rain delay but Rajasthan were soon into their work after being asked to bat as Karun Nair (19) and Rahane put on 44 runs for the first wicket off 5.3 overs before the right-handed Nair was trapped leg-before by Nadeem.

Kevon Cooper was sent in as a pinch-hitter and he took to his role with aplomb as he smashed two fours and three sixes as he raced to 32 off 16 balls, his highest score in T20 cricket, before he sliced a wide delivery from offspinner JP Duminy to Rahul Shukla at deep extra cover.

Rahane and Cooper had added 49 runs for the second wicket before Rahane and Sanju Samson pummelled 74 runs for the third wicket off just 6.3 overs.

The 19-year-old Samson was in sparkling form and he thrashed his way to 40 off a mere 25 balls with two fours and three sixes with, arguably, the shot of his innings being a flat-bat six he struck back over the head of the bowler, seamer Siddarth Kaul.

Stuart Binny (0) failed to trouble the scorers before being stumped off the bowling of legspinner Imran Tahir before Tahir picked up his second wicket in an over when he had Samson caught at long-on.

James Faulkner, with 23 not out off eight balls, and Ben Cutting (8) then hammered 32 runs off two overs for the sixth wicket with Cutting striking a massive 101m six that sailed over the deep mid-wicket fence and landed on the roof of the stadium.

Tahir was the pick of Delhi’s attack as he ended with 2-25 off four overs.

Delhi made a rocky start with the bat after the early loss of Mayank Agarwal (17) and Dinesh Karthik (3). The in-form JP Duminy (8) failed to reach double-figures before he was caught at point off the bowling of legspinner Pravin Tambe as Delhi slipped to 43 for three.

Matters did not improve for Delhi when Kevin Pietersen (13) inside edged a slower ball from medium-pacer Rajat Bhatia back on to his stumps as the visitors crashed to 48 four four in the eighth over.

Bhatia then pulled off a sharp, one-handed caught and bowled effort to remove Ross Taylor (4).

Kedar Jadhav (3), Nadeem (1) and Tahir (4) followed in quick succession before Shukla (14) and Tiwary added some respectability to the score with a ninth-wicket stand that produced 29 runs.

Tiwary brought up his fifty off 39 balls in the penultimate over of the match but it was to no avail as he ended the innings with five fours and two sixes as Bhatia claimed figures of 2-18 off three overs.

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